1.4mn visit Oman in five months

As many as 1.4mn people visited Oman in the first five months of this year. As per the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Gulf nationals topped the list at 478,471, followed by Indians at 161,174, Germans at 100,669, Britons at 80,545 and Italians at 44,943.

Cruise ships brought 187,000 tourists to the sultanate until May, an increase of 48 per cent compared to the same period of 2018, stated NCSI. 'Of these 68,976 were Germans, Britons at 21,886, Italians at 16,274, Spaniards at 10,341 and Americans at 8,264.'

NCSI said that the number of guests at 3-5 star hotels touched 756,000 amounting to revenues of RO104mn by the end of May this year.

The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is playing a key role in the development of the hospitality sector, in coordination with the public and private sector companies. The country had a total of 412 hotel establishments and 22,182 rooms until the end of 2018, with many more in the pipeline. According to

MoT, Muscat has the largest share of hotels at 155 and 12,106 rooms, followed by Dhofar with 34 hotels and 3,576 rooms.

South Sharqiyah has 52 hotels and 1,077 rooms, Dakhliyah 41 hotels and 1,254 rooms, North Batinah 30 hotels and 1,138 rooms, Buraimi 28 hotels and 977 rooms, North Sharqiyah 27 hotels and 484 rooms, South Batinah 16 hotels and 427 rooms, Al Wusta 13 hotels and 592 rooms, Musandam nine hotels and 471 rooms and Dhahirah seven hotels and 80 rooms.

From 10,924 hotel rooms in 2017 to an expected 16,866 in 2021, Muscat is witnessing the opening of maximum number of new hotels and is expected to drive a 12 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in the next three years, according to data released by Colliers International. Dhofar visitors The annual statistical survey of the khareef season, which officially began on June 21, shows that more than 82,000 people have already visited Dhofar.

According to NCSI, the total number of visitors to Salalah till 12 noon on July 16 stood at 82,231. The maximum number of visitors were Omanis (44,812), followed by Asians (10,275) and GCC citizens.

Among the GCC visitors, Saudis were the largest group of travellers (8,000), followed by Emiratis (5,377), Kuwaitis (1,168), Qataris (1,497) and Bahrainis (1,287).

Visitors from other Arab nations were 8,084, Europeans 1,286 and 692 were other nationalities. NCSI said that 62 per cent of the visitors arrived by the road route and 38 per cent air route.

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